Posts by Matthew Poole
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If the person volunteers that it's personal expenditure themselves, and pays up before the interest-free period has expired
uh, surely the bill would've been paid in its entirety before the due date, and then issues of reimbursement resolved at a later date? I mean, do you really think the responsible official would've looked through the bill, said "This, this, this, clearly OK, we'll pay them, that and that, a bit sus, need querying, and that is obviously outside the rules and we're not going to pay it."? Really? Of course not. The statement would've been paid in full and then issues of questionable expenditure left until later. The matter of the interest-free period is a complete non-issue.
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And on the topic of thinking of the children, a top OECD expert on social policy has attacked NZ's child poverty levels - our rate of children living in poverty is 15%, against an OECD average of 12% - and said that there needs to be a coordinated review of the tax and welfare systems. Coupled with that she dared to suggest that, like the countries that lead the OECD with low levels of child poverty, NZ should bring back a universal child benefit.
Can't see the current lot liking that particular suggested medicine, especially while Pull-ya Benefit is in charge, but it's worth considering. Of course we can't afford to do things like that and cut taxes, so I guess children living in poverty will have to rely on the trickle-down of charitable donations from the well-to-do to food banks and other such instruments of private welfare. Never mind that poverty in childhood is conclusively linked to poor academic performance, poor health, and lower lifetime income potential. Tying people into inter-generational benefit dependence indeed.
Still, I suppose that tomorrow's minimum-wage cleaners for the houses of Shon Key's mates do have to come from somewhere. -
However, in the interests of accuracy, Sky Digital isn't generally $80 a month - the basic package is $40something I think
$51.54 for Sky Basic, according to the horse, but the small print says that SkyWatch is included, though optional, at $2.60/month. So the absolute-no-frills, bargain-basement price is $48.94. Plus installation. 12-month term.
Which, really, puts it out of reach of a lot of households. That's not too far shy of $600/year, and that's without counting the installation charges. -
Look, Craig, can you change the record? We're all a little tired of your unseemly, unreasonable expectation that journalists use appropriate terms and do research. Employing competent reporters would cost money, and cut into profits, and we just cannot be having with that.
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Islander, I'll see your anecdotes and raise you mine: I've worked with a number of people who've shifted from being Labour/Greens voters to being National voters (this through the early-to-mid-00s, so it wasn't just a "tired of Labour" thing) as their pay increased. Their rationale was, frequently, "I want tax cuts."
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The first comment on Matt's column says it all:
You sound surprised that you defended socialism in front of a room full of probably drunk students receiving interest free student loans, and won?
I'd love you to do the same debate with the same students in 10 years, once they've moved to high paying jobs and are actually paying for all this crap, rather than receiving it.
Bet they've swapped sides.Nothing changes an Alliance/Labour voter into a National/Act voter faster than a pay increase. Rampant self-interest - the fires of which are happily stoked by a media that peddles the message of neo-liberal consumption as the remedy to society's ills - wins over caring for others when you're constantly told that looking out for anyone other than number one is weak and undesirable.
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At least some didn't go down that road
Thanks for depressing me. How is it that a city in a "developing economy" managed to achieve such far-sighted planning, with considered appreciation of public transport and other social services, when our "developed economy" is stuck with the mindset of roads, cars, roads, cars, roads, etc, ad nauseum?
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Gio, in the parlance of wikipedia, [citation needed].
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To those crying about the use of the F word to describe Rodney, do I have to remind you that he was the prime engineer of the abrogation of democratic process in Canterbury?
Yes it's a far cry from fascism in the historical sense, but the parallels are there: suspending elections; governance by corporate interests; imposition from on-high of structures for local administration against the will of the administered; legislation to deny recourse to the courts in favour of commercially-expedient outcomes...
Gio, I didn't realise the liberalism, even of the neo variety, extended to deeming democracy and its processes to be an inconvenience that must be subverted, denied, or ignored whenever possible. ie: at all times outside the electoral cycle. Because that's what we're seeing from Rodney.
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Once again, do as Rodney says, not as Rodney does.
hahahaha. As I was trying to find the exact quote from Rodney about his mum and libraries (I failed), I encountered the Scoop release where he apologised for his blatant hypocrisy with use of public funds. Clearly I wasn't the only one reminded of that incident this morning.